GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS—According to a BBC News report, researchers including Marcel Niekus of Stichting STONE/Foundation for Stone Age Research suggest that Neanderthals were capable of complex thinking, based upon adhesive made from birch tar discovered on a Neanderthal stone tool. The well-preserved tool was discovered in Doggerland, in what would have been an icy tundra with few trees in an area now covered by the waters of the North Sea. Such adhesive requires more than 80 pounds of wood to produce, Niekus said. “They also had to invest time and energy in building the fire and extracting the tar,” he explained. Birch tar is usually thought to have been used to attach wooden handles to stone tools. The tar on this small tool, however, may have been used to improve the user’s grip and help prevent cuts to the user’s hands while cutting plant fibers or scraping animal skins. “With the investment in time needed, you would expect them only to do it with special hunting weapons,” Niekus said, “but they did it with special domestic tools as well. We think the use of birch tar was quite widespread.” For more, go to “Neanderthal Tool Time.”
